to you."

"Good news! Dr. Parker, if you've got news for me that is good, for
Heaven's sake tell it. I've been imagining everything bad that could
possibly happen. Tell me, quick. My health can stand that."

"Ye-es, yes, I guess it can. They say joy doesn't kill, and that's one
of the few medical proverbs made by unmedical men that are true. You
come with me and sit down in that chair. Yes, you will. Sit down."

He led his patient back to the chair by the window and forced him into
it.

"There!" he said. "Now, Mr. Ellery, if you think you are a man, a
sensible man, who won't go to pieces like a ten-year-old youngster,
I'll--I'll let you sit here for a while."

"Doctor?"

"You sit still. No, I'm not going to tell you anything. You sit where
you are and maybe the news'll come to you. If you move it won't. Going
to obey orders? Good! I'll see you by and by, Mr. Ellery."

He walked out of the room. It seemed to Ellery that he sat in that chair
for ten thousand years before the door again opened. And then--

--"Grace!" he cried. "O Grace! you--you've come back."

She was blushing red, her face was radiant with quiet happiness, but her
eyes were moist. She crossed the room, bent over and kissed him on the
forehead.

"Yes, John," she said; "I've come back. Yes, dear, I've come back to--to
you."

Outside the shanty, on the side farthest from the light and its group
of buildings, the doctor and Captain Nat Hammond were talking with Mrs.
Higgins. The latter was wildly excited and bubbling with joy.

"It's splendid!" she exclaimed. "It's almost too fine to believe. Now
we'll keep our minister, won't we?"

"I don't see why not," observed the doctor, with quiet satisfaction.
"Zeb and I had the Daniels crowd licked to a shoestring and now they'll
stay licked. The parish committee is three to one for Mr. Ellery and the
congregation more than that. Keep him? You bet we'll keep him! And
I'll dance at his wedding--that is, unless he's got religious scruples
against it."

Mrs. Higgins turned to Captain Nat.

"It's kind of hard for you, Nat," she said. "But it's awful noble and
self-sacrificin' and everybody'll say so. Of course there wouldn't be
much satisfaction in havin' a wife you knew cared more for another man.
But still it's awful noble of you to give her up."

The captain looked at the doctor and laughed quietly.

"Don't let my nobility weigh on your mind, Mrs. Higgins," he said. "I'd
made up my mind to do